No bucket list for this old granny.

 My mother is 93 years old. She is in hospital and  has improved since we arrived. She has dementia too which confuses her. She has always had a thing about being ‘old’. I remember one day when we were visiting some people, she came out to the car and was so indignant that they called her old. “Who do they think they are calling old?” she said, absolutely miffed at their attitude.  I laughed.  “Well” I said, “you are nearly 80”. “That’s not old,” she sniffed, highly offended.

Mum has been active and busy all her life. She has kept many a vitamin shop in business, eaten good food, lots of vegies, never smoked, had a glass of wine every five years or so, and not had a day in hospital since my sister was born, (the younger of us two), and that was a long long time ago.

We often read about how the mind controls the body, and in her case I think it is still in total control. For many years Mum has been one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, holding the firm belief that God will intervene in the rotten affairs of this system, and replace it with a heavenly government that will care for the people. This will be done with the endless power God has, and for those living at the time of this occurrence, continuing life will be the outcome, while God brings the earth back to the perfect conditions intended when Adam and Eve were created. It was always her hope to see this happen, and dying was never on her agenda. She never had a bucket list, she didn’t need one.

Some readers might think Mum’s beliefs very airy fairy, but I think most people realise that something has to happen to the earth before too long, either global warming will wipe us out, or a nuclear war will finish off the human race, or intervention by some higher power must take place.

So now we come to the point when her life is coming to an end, and she is not prepared to go yet. She is hanging on to life with both hands and all fingernails. The mind wanders, but the feet don’t want to wander much now. Dementia is a terrible thing, many of my friends parents have suffered from this, and there is no pill to cure it, no operation to take out the bad bits. It just has to run its course until the body gives up. But in Mums case, I think it will be until the mind gives up, and that might be a while, the will to live is still pretty strong. And if she was in full control of her faculties, she would be rather miffed at my suggesting she is old at 93. Just as well she can’t read this.